in lieu of gifts...

I was about to post this picture and the thoughts that go with it on Instagram yesterday{please ignore my feet in the picture… it would have looked a lot better if I had posted it on Instagram, oh well}, but as I prayed through it, I felt call to flesh it out, to share our whole heart in this matter.  It made me uneasy and unsure, not knowing how well received it will be in our current society… but I feel called to write it none the less, so here goes… Current state of affairs in the United States: Kids run the show.  I don't even mean this in the traditional way, that they get everything they want {although that might also be the case} but our worlds literally revolve around our children.     We accommodate for their every whim. We protect them from every hurt.  We give them every experience (even at the expense of our marriages and families). Our children's shirts always have their initials or monograms on them (this is the pot calling the kettle black… BD has 3 birthday shirts… Lord help us). Have we ever stopped to ask if ANY of this is preparing them to be disciple-makers… or is all of this telling children to focus on themselves?

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Isaiah 54:13 All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

So goodness gracious… how do we even do this raising children thing in the world today?  How do raise them to have a heart for others, to be kingdom minded? I have been thinking about this a lot with BD's first birthday/party coming up.  Sometimes the preparation makes me feel that we are bordering on child worship… not what we want to do.  We pray that this party will be a CELEBRATION of the year God has given us with Bailey Drew, as well as a PRAYER for her life to be dedicated to following Christ.   So how do we do this… this celebration without nurturing a child's self-centered nature.  To be honest, I don't know, we are still figuring this out and probably will be for the rest of our parenting journey. Sometimes I feel like I am slapping a Bible verse on a bunch of the decorations to assure myself that we  are making this about Christ {don't think this necessarily works ether :[}.   One way Andrew and I feel called to take action in this area is showing BD life is not just about getting  things we want {though she will get presents from time to time- that will not be our focus}, that it is in fact better to give than receive.  We have asked that in lieu of gifts for her first birthday, to give to  World Vision.  Our goal this year is to raise $300 for World Vision.  We hope and pray you will be a part of this… if you want to give, you can do so here.

And as time goes on, we hope for birthdays and Christmases, she will pick ways to impact our community, our nation and the world for Christ.

Do y'all have any other suggestions for discipling your child?